Been a rough 6 months since starting in the summer. Any other first years out there thinking about leaving banking? And if so, are you leaving with no back up plan or have a job offer lined up? Might be difficult to lateral or find a new job given the short duration of my current role.
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I have been thinking about lateraling, as opposed to quitting. My group's culture is certainly not the best.
I accepted a lateral position a few weeks ago with only being on the desk for 6 months at my previous firm, so lateralling is definitely possible given the time frame. My first question in all my calls and interviews was "Why do you want to leave?" so it's imperative you have a strong response here. I had very strong reasons for leaving so I honestly didn't have much pushback after my answer. Most people said "that makes sense" and moved on to the rest of the interview.
Could you please PM me?
Just curious, how did you find the time during the day to interview without your group noticing?
So I was fortunate that a few people across my deal teams knew about it because they were also interviewing so they could cover me if needed. But I was WFH 2-3 days a week so I would schedule interviews then. The people interviewing obviously understand the fact you are in banking so I had to switch up the times a few times as things got put on my calendar. End of the day though, if you take 30 minutes to respond to an email instead of 5 because you’re in an interview, it’s not the end of the world.
Could you PM me? Looking to lateral as a first-year and would love to learn more
Like the poster above said, with 6 months of experience you are a strong candidate, especially if you’re already in the same group you’re interviewing for (dcm -> dcm, ecm-> ecm, levfin-> levfin, industrials -> industrials etc) I just say I love the work we do, but I’m looking for a new team because of xyz (ex: my mds all quit) and you’ll have no problems.
Fwiw I’ve been applying on LinkedIn and get interviews at 80% of the places I apply that are within the same sector (doesn’t matter if it’s an eb/mm/bb) Non target, 6 months of experience. If you like the job, I highly recommend lateraling. It’s so easy.
How awkward was it giving your notice?
Following, although surprised by the number of people just lateraling to another shop for IB..don’t think that’s going to solve the underlying problem here...
Yup, I want to leave and do something non-IB. Have absolutely no desire to reset the clock by starting a new IB gig and having to wait 1-2 years again before switching jobs to not be another red flag.
Well at least you’re aware. These guys will be in for a rude awakening here all I can say...it’s the like the people who get suckered into doing PE for the belief of WLB lol
Yup same situation 6 months in actively recruiting to leave banking entirely. No interest in lateraling.
OP here, basically my question was more of leaving IB and not lateraling. Have no interest as well but wanted to see if I’m just a bitch for leaving so early
I don't know why that would be the case. I left BB IB entirely last month
Very common tbh. Corp dev + strategy analyst roles would all be happy to have you, or strategic finance at a unicorn/young pubco might be interesting.
I wouldn't lateral unless you know the problem is that you hate your bank. Looks bad to leave job 2 after a short time as well.
Haven't looked too seriously, but seeing a lot of Corp Dev / strategy analyst roles looking for 2+ years experience. Would waiting an extra year provide significantly better odds at these roles? Know I don't want to do IB / PE in the future so just from the corporate lease wondering if I'd still be hurting myself more than not if I leave ~1 year in.
Yes, the odds are definitely better at 2 years. Once you get to 1 year you start being considered though
1st year here as well (6 months into the job). Planning to leave banking altogether in the near-term but now have been debating on whether I should leave already, or leave post-bonus. Leaning toward the former though given I just flat-out do not enjoy my job or the group.
I know of a few others in my group that are also in the same predicament.
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